Established in 1870 with the founding of St. Ignatius College, the College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest college at Loyola University Chicago. At it's core is the Ratio Atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis Iesu, the curriculum for a Jesuit education instituted by the Society of Jesus in 1599. 

St. Ignatius College separated its college and high school divisions at the end of the 19th century with the college division being named the St. Ignatius College of Arts and Sciences. This name was retained following the rechartering of St. Ignatius College as Loyola University. It wasn't until the mid 1920s that St. Ignatius was dropped from Loyola's College of Arts and Sciences.